U. Thong Hotel Phitsanulok

... the forest where they are free to wander, play and eat. Just watching the younger males and females play freely is one of life's great joys, to me anyway. When play-time is over we walk or ride the elephants back to base - my elephant is a 10 year old female named Wang Thong who is extremely wilful to say the least, and will do pretty much what she wants to do. If she has decided she will co-operate then she is an absolute diamond, but at other times ...

... the present moment as fully as possible? Can you continue to practice, to sit, to do the work you need to do, even when you don't feel like it, even when it's not fun? Can you be with yourself and do you like what you see, even love yourself? Who are you? Not the physical you, not your history, not the stories we tell, the labels we place on ourselves and the identities the ego likes to attach itself to....but who are you, the essence of you?

... a seat and a drink, not necessarily alcoholic, just to replace the gallons of water lost during a morning of 40c sunshine. Since there are no customers and most of the market stall-holders are asleep the noodle stalls are deserted in the afternoon but after a bit of a hunt we discovered a curious mixture of noodle shop, jeweller and massage parlour out on the main road. As we puzzled our way through the dishes on offer we were interrupted by the lady in charge (we had been taking to ...

... a far way to be called an invasion, is of cause not too impressive. Not even Brisbane have much going on Thursday night. When the bar I was in closed, I went for a hunt up a deserted street with only a few prostitutes that was running after me yelling something, and some stray dogs running here and there. I hoped to find a street bar that they have here and there. They are basically a home made bar on the street ...

... wedged the bull between two trees. He then continues to beat the Bull's Balls to a pulp it leaves you thinking there has to be a better way the poor boy only gets cocnut oil to ease his pain. Having bought a small cow it was off to meet Alex in the evening. Sat 24th: Getting up early we jumped on a local bus to take us to an old capital of Thailand, Sukothai. It is a temple city much like Angkor, in Cambodia. A walled city filled with stupas and temples and surrounded by even ...

... and battered from outside but was surprisingly decent inside, you could even swivel the chairs around to face the other direction. Clever. We also got free breakfast and dinner, which was good work. <br><br>It's a bit embarrassing that you can pay GBP 1.50 for an 8 hour journey on a train which is better than the equivalent journey on an English ...

... We were finally out of farang (foreigner) land, so we had to search around for someone who spoke enough English to get our bearings straight. Our day in Phisanulok felt like we were really hanging out with the natives. Everyone was very friendly as we checked out temples, tried out our Thai dictionary, and breezed through the holiday night markets. Deb made some friends with local girls selling noise makers and she even caught some ...

Our stay in Sukothai leaves me warm with happiness, more relaxed, slowed down to the quieter pace of rural Thailand. The people here smile often, in a genuine way, and their lightness of spirit is contagious. Free to explore with rented bikes, we awoke at 5am and rode beyond the city walls then climbed a hill to an ancient wat (Wat Sa Phan Hin) to see the sun rise over the misty city below. The large standing Buddha, posed in the fear ...

We woke up at the crack of noon yesterday, loaded up our backpacks and Mac drove us to the bus station. He helped us get a ticket to a town halfway to Bangkok called Phitsanulok and sent us on our way. The excitement of the travels took hold of as we criss crossed through the mountains for 7 hours before arriving here at about 8pm last night. We took a taxi truck to a place called Lithai guesthouse. After ...

... who teaches English at a school outside of Bangkok, Dakota. We ended up spending the day together, bicycling around the national park. We were able to cover the majority, if not the totality of the park in nine hours, including the adjacent museum. More striking then the architechture of the place, which did not surpass that of Angkor, was the Buddhas. Since Sukhothai was ...